Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Scones, Under the Fig Tree

6 April – Kossouka, 9:02pm

Up down. Well, today itself was pretty good. I managed to wake up before my alarm went off, but lounged in bed for a bit longer anyway, then got my breakfast bread and made my coffee and sat outside with the cats before heading to the CSPS at 8 instead of 9. I was apparently still too late and the women had already been weighed, but perhaps if I get there a bit earlier tomorrow I can help out. There weren't many women this morning – we were done before 9, a very rare event indeed. There was an inspection by the district and the NGO Medicus Mondi to check our staff's knowledge of the new national protocols for malaria treatment. I learned a bit more about malaria, they answered a bunch of questions and were told that they should have staff meetings to share information learned at formations and conferences, and then I left to go to the tap to get water.

In celebration of my birthday tomorrow I decided to bake! I finally got out the dutch oven, and I am happy to report that my first baking expedition turned out wonderfully and I firmly plan on doing so more often – next up, cornbread and lasagna! The lemon-ginger scones are delicious and I have eaten more than my fair share, but the rest are going to my CSPS staff tomorrow and I'll figure out something for the prefet when I go to bug him for that list of community organizations. I was going to go today, but just as I started baking Sali (my midwife) came to ask if I would take her to the mango grove Moussa had mentioned. I was a bit surprised, but said I'd be happy to, so an hour later, off we went. Walking, none the less! I think we got more stares from people accustomed to seeing her moto everywhere (even from one end of the CSPS to the other) than from me being the nasara. We decided that the mango grove was too crowded, so we sat under these two giant old twisty fig trees and I read and did sodoku puzzles while she studied for her concours that starts the 10th. I still don't quite get what it is, but I think it's a big test/training/application to continue on to the next level in the medical hierarchy, to move from an Accouseuse Auxilliare to a Sage Femme. We headed home when it was starting to get kind of dark and stormy looking, but it didn't rain.

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About Me

Born in Colorado, undergrad in Massachusetts, spent 2 years working with the Peace Corps in West Africa. Somewhere along the way I fell for the desert. Although I'm currently a grad student in Tennessee, I hope to someday make my home in the sunny southwest, at least until the next adventure.

Where to find me!

Jessica Suhowatsky, PCV

S/c Corps de la Paix

01 B.P. 6031

Ouagadougou 01, Burkina Faso

I've decided to keep the same address for now, and anything you mail at this address will be held until I can get to Ouaga to pick it up. This might not happen more often than once every month or two so I might be a little slow to respond but I promise I will! Packages and letters arrive intact (sometimes late, but intact) - the strategy of addressing in red or putting religious symbols on the outside is apparently not as useful in Burkina as it is in other countries. International flat-rate boxes seem to be the easiest and often the least expensive option. You probably shouldn't value the contents at more than $40, and list them as "Educational Materials".